Renovation Tips Every DIY Enthusiast Should Know

Renovating a home is a big step for some people to take, with lots of different things to consider before a project is undertaken.

There are lots of tutorials out there for people looking to carry out specific jobs, but it isn’t only the process you should be looking at when approaching a DIY job. Depending on the size, there are other factors equally as important that are often missed or not given enough thought.

When approaching a job, during the process or even once you think you’ve finished it, you might need to bear in mind these important suggestions.

Budget

Real Homes explains how planning is the most important part of your renovation, with budgeting an aspect people often get horribly wrong. What you want and what you can afford may be completely different and even if you’re stretching your budget you’re wading into dangerous waters.
Think about contingency planning. Most projects start with an insufficient budget, often around 75% of what the real cost finishes up as. Make sure you budget correctly and build in a strong contingency for any problems you might encounter.

Youtube

One aspect of budgeting you’ll doubtless be exploiting is work you can do yourself. Why pay an experienced tradesman to come in and do a job that you can cover yourself? The modern age has allowed the delivery of expert tutorials directly to our computer, making every amateur DIY fan something of an expert. A quick visit to YouTube, for instance, will reveal videos on almost any subject around the home renovation.
Read up on the job you’re going to do and see if it is something you can do yourself. It might even be that you can undertake prep work before getting a tradesman in, saving on time that would have ended up paying for.

Specialist Advice

Whilst the digital age delivers information and tutorials directly into your home, always be aware that you may need to consult specialist engineers or take external advice when approaching your DIY job.
Remember, none of the videos understands your home, your specific job or the complications you might face. By all means, view the tutorials and get an idea of the job, but if in any doubt consult a specialist. That might not be a tradesman either; you may need to consult a planning department at your local authority, or perhaps a structural engineer.

Insurance

Any renovation job you undertake is going to be at a cost to you but is going to provide great pride around the home. Therefore, when it is finished, it’s vital you consider any aftercare you might need. Insurance is often ignored following a renovation, with many different aspects of a renovation needing consideration. Anything that has seriously increased the value of your home will need to be revealed to your existing insurers to ensure it is covered as a prerequisite. Remember, new kitchens and bathroom furniture are covered by contents insurance and should be declared if the value has significantly increased. If you’re unsure, speak to your insurers.

If you’ve made changes to a plumbing and heating system, it might be worth investigating cover that specifically protects your installation. This is especially true if your furnace and heating systems are old. For instance, in New York, many of the public housing complexes are heated by faulty boilers that haven’t been changed in decades, with many now in complete disrepair. If you are doing renovations to your home’s heating system in a public housing complex, you will need insurance to cover you as you work with often decades-old heating systems. Yet even if you are installing a modern system it pays to be prepared. Faulty heating systems are common across the world, and even if you have installed a new model, The Guardian reports that boilers that are just six years old in the UK are still prone to break numerous times. This is turn would require multiple callouts which can end up being very costly without insurance.